The Jura Mountains is a small mountain range located north of the Alps and they separate the Rhine and Rhone rivers forming part of the watershed of each. The range is being continually deformed by mountain building, accommodating the compression from alpine folding as the main Alpine orogenic front moves roughly northwards. The deformation becomes less pervasive away from the younger more active Alpine mountain building.
The folds comprise three major (lithological units) bands of building evidenced dated roughly by era: the Malm, Dogger, and Lias (part of the Jurassic Geologic period). Each era of folding represents effects on a previously shallow marine environment as evidenced by beds with particular carbonate sequences, containing abundant bioclasts and oolitic divisions between layers (called horizons).
Structurally, the Jura consists of a sequence of folds, the formation of which is facilitated by an evaporitic decollement layer. The box folds are still relatively young, and this is evident in that they define the shape of the overlying landscape, meaning that they have not existed long enough to experience erosion and thus are evidence of recent mountain building.
The highest peak in the Jura range is Crêt de la Neige at 1,720 meters (5,643 feet), although previously it was believed to be 1,717.6 meters (5,635.2 feet).
Seven men died climbing these mountains in 1940.